Academicians should not get to hog resources

ON SATURDAY, the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that Chen Ning Yang, winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics, and Yao Qizhi, recipient of the 2000 Turing Award, have been admitted as academicians as they have renounced their US citizenships and are now Chinese citizens. China Youth Daily comments:

In China, being honored with the title of an academician brings with it economic interests as well as academic privileges, as the holders will receive many invitations to host research programs.

Actually, some academicians have been invited to host so many programs that they can hardly invest any energy in each of them. Many research institutions know this, but they still keep inviting academicians because there is a blind worship of them among domestic scholars, even residents.